Further Improvements: Token-Based Identity for Voters and Candidates

This document outlines a potential future improvement for managing voter and candidate identities using ERC token standards (EIP-721 and EIP-1155). This approach aims to enhance flexibility, grant individuals more sovereignty over their profiles, and enable reusability across multiple elections.

EIP-721 for Candidate Identity (Non-Fungible Tokens - NFTs)

Using EIP-721 tokens to represent each candidate offers several benefits:

• Sovereignty & Unique Identity: Each EIP-721 token is unique and non-fungible, meaning it represents a single, distinct candidate. The candidate (or their designated wallet) would own this NFT, granting them direct control and sovereignty over their digital identity within the voting system. Their profile becomes an asset they possess.
• Rich, Decentralized Profiles: EIP-721 tokens can link to rich metadata (e.g., a JSON file stored on IPFS). This metadata can contain the candidate's name, picture, political platform, biography, and other relevant information. The candidate controls this metadata, allowing for a comprehensive and decentralized profile that is not solely dependent on a central registry.
• Reusability Across Elections: Once a candidate has an EIP-721 identity token, they can use this same token to register for multiple elections. An election contract would simply verify that the address attempting to register is the owner of a valid candidate NFT. This eliminates the need to re-create candidate profiles for every new election, streamlining the process.
• Flexibility: The metadata associated with the NFT can be updated (if the contract allows for it, or by issuing a new token with updated metadata), providing flexibility for candidates to evolve their public profiles over time.

EIP-1155 for Voter Identity (Multi-Token Standard)

Employing EIP-1155 for voter identity provides significant flexibility and efficiency:

• Flexibility & Categorization: EIP-1155 is a multi-token standard, allowing a single contract to manage various types of tokens (fungible, non-fungible, or semi-fungible). For voter identity, this is incredibly powerful:
  • Diverse Voter Types: Different token_ids could represent different categories of voters (e.g., token_id=1 for "Verified Citizen," token_id=2 for "Verified Resident," token_id=3 for "Eligible Student").
  • Proof of Eligibility: Instead of a simple boolean flag in a registry, a voter holds a specific EIP-1155 token that acts as their proof of eligibility. The balanceOf(address, token_id) function can then be used by election contracts to verify their status.
• Sovereignty: Similar to EIP-721, owning an EIP-1155 token grants the voter sovereignty over their proof of eligibility. They hold the token in their wallet, not a central authority, giving them control over its use.
• Reusability Across Elections: A voter's EIP-1155 token (e.g., their "Verified Citizen" token) can be used to grant voting rights in any election that accepts that specific token type as a credential. This means voters do not need to undergo re-registration or re-verification for every election; they simply need to hold the appropriate token.
• Batch Operations: EIP-1155 supports efficient batch transfers and balance checks, which can be more gas-efficient for operations involving many voters or different token types.
• Potential for Privacy: While the token itself is on-chain, the specific details of how a voter became eligible (e.g., their real-world identity verification) can remain off-chain, with the token serving as a privacy-preserving proof of eligibility.

Architectural Implications

Implementing this approach would involve:

1. Creating new ERC-721 and ERC-1155 compliant smart contracts for managing candidate and voter identities, respectively.
2. Modifying the Election contract to interact with these new token contracts for verifying candidate eligibility and voter rights, rather than relying solely on the current CandidateRegistry and VoterRegistry for direct data storage.

This shift would move the identity management from a simple registry-based system to a more robust, decentralized, and flexible token-based identity solution.